What do they mean by “self-service retail locations”? Things like vending machines, laundry pay stations, and parking meters, for instance.

“Our customers are excited to accept Apple Pay at the self-serve locations they operate,” said Stephen P. Herbert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of USA Technologies. “We anticipate that the millions of consumers who frequent these locations will appreciate the convenience and security of using Apple Pay for their everyday purchases, and we believe that Apple Pay will help to drive additional sales for our customers. USA Technologies has always sought to provide convenience, security and an easy way to pay for consumers who are less and less likely to carry cash. We recognized early on the potential for mobile payment, and promoted the technology to ensure our customers were ready for this shift to occur.”

USA Technologies’ products are already NFC-ready, so the addition of Apple Pay as a new payment option is being described as “immediate”.

The potential benefits of being able to use cashless, even plastic-less methods of payment at , let’s say, the grocery store or a clothing store are significant. But I’d argue that it’s these quick, usually minuscule transactions that could really benefit from something like Apple Pay.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/apple-pay-coming-to-200k-vending-machines-parking-stations-2015-01/feed0Sounds Like Facebook Messenger’s Payments Feature Won’t Be Around For A Whilehttp://www.webpronews.com/sounds-like-facebook-messengers-payments-feature-wont-be-around-for-a-while-2015-01
http://www.webpronews.com/sounds-like-facebook-messengers-payments-feature-wont-be-around-for-a-while-2015-01#commentsThu, 22 Jan 2015 17:01:13 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=414605A payments feature in Facebook Messenger has been expected since at least last summer. In June, Facebook hired PayPal President David Marcus to run its messaging unit.

The following month, the company reported its earnings for the second quarter, and on the conference call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that we’d be able to make payments with Messenger eventually. Here’s what he said during the Q&A portion of the call (via Business Insider):

Messenger will have — over time there will be some overlap between that and payments. But I guess what I’m just trying to say is two things. One is, the payments piece will be a part of what will help drive the overall success and help people share with each other and interact with businesses. But we’re really focused on the interactions overall, rather than the mechanism and David shares that view.

And the second thing is just that there’s so much ground work that we need to do in order to make it so that people are communicating with businesses and public figures and entities in these other apps that we’re building, which is part of the business ecosystem. And I really can’t underscore that enough that we have a lot of work to do and we could take the cheap and easy approach and just try to put ads in or do payments and make some money in the short term. But we’re not going to do that. So to the extent that any of your models or anything reflects that we might be doing that, I would strongly encourage you here to adjust that, because we’re not going to and we’re going to take time to do this in the way that we think that’s going to be right over multiple years.

In October, screenshots of of a payments feature taken using a developer tool emerged:

It doesn’t sound like such a feature will be making its way to the app for people to actually use anytime soon. TheNextWeb spoke with Marcus, who it says “Maintains that there’s no immediate plans to integrate payments into the platform.” From the report:

“For Facebook it doesn’t make sense to build a payments business, it makes sense to remove friction from payments experiences so that advertisers – and people – can actually get more of what they want,” he said. “Fixing payments across all Facebook properties from an experience standpoint and really making sure it’s frictionless is really important.”

In short, if (more likely, ‘when’) it integrates payments, it’ll partner to do so.

It goes on to say that Marcus confirmed that Facebook has no immediate plans to monetize Messenger.

As you’re probably aware, Facebook recently forced users to download the standalone Messenger app if they wanted to use the messaging feature on their mobile devices. Zuckerberg gave the lame reason that tapping a tab from the main Facebook app was too hard. Common sense suggested it was part of “laying the groundwork” for monetization.

In November, Facebook boasted that it had over 500 million people using Messenger each month.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/sounds-like-facebook-messengers-payments-feature-wont-be-around-for-a-while-2015-01/feed0Chevron Readies Apple Pay At The Pumphttp://www.webpronews.com/chevron-readies-apple-pay-at-the-pump-2014-12
http://www.webpronews.com/chevron-readies-apple-pay-at-the-pump-2014-12#commentsTue, 30 Dec 2014 14:52:36 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=412001One day in the not too distant future, you may be able to pay for gas at Chevron stations with your iPhone right at the pump. Chevron recently tweeted this (via MacRumors):

@SingAsana We are working alongside Apple to develop solutions to integrate with Apple Pay at the pump by early 2015.

Chevron was actually one of the launch partners for Apple Pay listed when Apple first announced its payment product, and already offers its customers the ability to pay with Apple Pay inside some of its stores. A pay-at-the-pump feature would be new, however, and could lead other gas stations to follow suit. Texaco stations also currently accept Apple Pay in-store.

MacRumors reports in an update:

Chevron has clarified that a potential timeline for the rollout of Apple Pay at the pump remains unclear, with no official early 2015 launch planned. The company also plans to continue to roll out in-store Apple Pay support to 3,000 stores in 2015.

In fact, it’s not news that Chevron has had plans to integrate Apple Pay at the pump. SFGate quoted a company spokesperson as far back as October:

“Initially, Apple Pay payments will be made in the store, but we are working along with Apple Pay on developing the technology out at the fuel dispensers as well,” said Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall.

The tweet, however, would seem to suggest that the feature is getting closer.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/chevron-readies-apple-pay-at-the-pump-2014-12/feed0Google Wallet For iOS Lets You Split Billshttp://www.webpronews.com/google-wallet-4-2014-12
http://www.webpronews.com/google-wallet-4-2014-12#commentsTue, 16 Dec 2014 16:49:26 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=410858Google Wallet for iOS will now let you split up bills with your friends, adding a helpful function to an app Google is still hoping will truly take off.

The days of arguing about how to split the dinner bill are over. With the latest version of Google Wallet on iOS you can pick any charge, add the people you want to split it with, choose how you want to divide it up, and they’ll receive a request for their share of the total.

The app has been updated with a few other features as well. For one, it now supports Apple’s Touch ID, so users can use their fingerprint to unlock it.

It also got a general redesign, taking advantage of Material Design, which the company is slowly rolling out to most of its apps.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/google-wallet-4-2014-12/feed0Square Sellers Recently Brought In $100 Million In One Dayhttp://www.webpronews.com/square-announces-100-million-in-sales-on-one-day-2014-12
http://www.webpronews.com/square-announces-100-million-in-sales-on-one-day-2014-12#commentsMon, 15 Dec 2014 16:17:51 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=410698]]>Square achieved a big milestone, announcing that its sellers made $100,000,000 in sales in one day.

The company is sharing a set of infographics looking at the sellers who made this up:

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/square-announces-100-million-in-sales-on-one-day-2014-12/feed0Dorsey: Square To Support Apple Pay Next Yearhttp://www.webpronews.com/dorsey-square-to-support-apple-pay-next-year-2014-11
http://www.webpronews.com/dorsey-square-to-support-apple-pay-next-year-2014-11#commentsFri, 21 Nov 2014 21:09:46 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=405970Square indicated in September that Square Register would eventually support Apple Pay, which officially launched last month.

Founder Jack Dorsey reaffirmed Square’s support for the product in a CNN interview. Here’s a snippet from the article:

Apple Pay and Square have generally been viewed as competitors in the mobile payment space, but Dorsey doesn’t see it that way.

“We’re not building a credit card. We’re not building a payment device. We’re building a [cash] register, and this register accepts all these forms of payments,” Dorsey told CNN in an interview.

The company will start accepting Apple Pay sometime next year.

This week, Square also launched Square Register in more countries. It’s now available worldwide in English, Spanish, French, and Japanese, and supports 130 internationally recognized currencies.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/dorsey-square-to-support-apple-pay-next-year-2014-11/feed0Facebook Adds Stripe Benefits To FbStarthttp://www.webpronews.com/facebook-adds-stripe-benefits-to-fbstart-2014-11
http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-adds-stripe-benefits-to-fbstart-2014-11#commentsFri, 21 Nov 2014 16:20:33 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=405913Facebook announced that it’s adding benefits provided by Stripe to FbStart, as well as launching a new site where members can manage their benefits and learn more about the program.

Faceobook first announced FbStart at its f8 developer conference back in April. It’s basically a program that provides startups with tools and resources to help them grow. It includes thousands of dollars worth of tools and services to eligible companies with a growing partner list.

This year, we’ve added new partners and their free benefits to the program, increased the value of those benefits, and launched an international tour to meet with startups in cities like New York, Boston, Austin, Seattle, Dublin, London, Sao Paulo, and San Francisco. By providing free benefits along with our partner companies, and meeting with thousands of startups in person, FbStart is helping developers build, grow and monetize their businesses.

Today we are announcing that FbStart members (both Bootstrap and Accelerate) will now have access to up to $50,000 in payment processing from Stripe, which joins the 17 other partner companies providing FbStart benefits.

Facebook says it will reach out to existing members with more details about how to log into the new site and redeem Stripe benefits

Image via Facebook

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-adds-stripe-benefits-to-fbstart-2014-11/feed0Google Will Give You Money To Refer Friends To Google Wallethttp://www.webpronews.com/google-will-give-you-money-to-refer-friends-to-google-wallet-2014-11
http://www.webpronews.com/google-will-give-you-money-to-refer-friends-to-google-wallet-2014-11#commentsTue, 18 Nov 2014 19:49:07 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=405046Google has a new Google Wallet referral program in which it will give users $5 when their friends claim money from them.

You and a friend can each get $5 when you introduce them to Google Wallet. Simply send money (even a penny works) to a friend of yours who doesn’t have a Google Wallet Balance yet. When they claim the money and verify their identity, you’ll each receive $5 in your Wallet Balance within 3 business days.

When you’re sending money to someone, you’ll see a confirmation message if your transaction applies for this promotion.

There are some stipulations. Both parties’ addresses have to be in the United States. Both have to verify their identities, and you’ll need to have a Wallet Balance already. It also has to be your friend’s first time creating a Wallet Balance.

Google will give you a$5 credit for up to 20 referrals. The offer will run until Google sees 20,000 referrals or the end of the month, whichever comes first.

Image via Google

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/google-will-give-you-money-to-refer-friends-to-google-wallet-2014-11/feed0Square Launches New Gift Cards For Sellershttp://www.webpronews.com/square-launches-new-gift-cards-for-sellers-2014-11
http://www.webpronews.com/square-launches-new-gift-cards-for-sellers-2014-11#commentsTue, 18 Nov 2014 16:56:02 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=404971Square announced a new gift card offering, so sellers using its Register product can run gift card programs from their point of sale. Merchants can offer, redeem, and track gift cards within Square Register.

Square began offering digital gift cards that could be redeemed with the now defunct Square Wallet app two years ago, but these new ones are real, physical cards.

“Square is making it possible for businesses like ours to compete directly with large corporations,” said Regeania Coleman, owner of Jungle Juice Bar in Detroit. “Gift cards from Square offer the professional look and feel that customers expect without being unbelievably pricey for us to offer. Without Square, we wouldn’t be in business.”

“When a customer purchases a gift card, the funds from the activation are automatically deposited into the seller’s account just like other sales,” Square said. “Sellers don’t have to wait for the gift card to be redeemed. To redeem a gift card, sellers simply swipe the card like any credit or debit card, and the balance on the card automatically updates. Cards can be reloaded with additional value at any time.”

Sellers can order the cards from the Square Dashboard. They run $1.50 per card, and have no additional fees associated with them. Sellers can even customize the design of the cards or choose from available templates.

]]>http://www.webpronews.com/square-launches-new-gift-cards-for-sellers-2014-11/feed0Snapchat and Square Partner On Snapcashhttp://www.webpronews.com/snapchat-and-square-partner-on-snapcash-2014-11
http://www.webpronews.com/snapchat-and-square-partner-on-snapcash-2014-11#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 22:03:49 +0000http://www.webpronews.com/?p=404741Snapchat has partnered up with Square to offer a new payment product called Snapcash. As you’d imagine, it’s a way to pay people using Snapchat.

When people think of Square, they no doubt think about the card readers often used by small businesses, but Square has other products including Square Cash, which lets you simply send payments to people by email or text.

We’re huge fans of the folks at Square and have been big admirers of Square Cash since it launched – just type a dollar amount into the subject line of an email and send cash to friends. Genius!

We loved it so much that we wanted to create something with them that felt Snapchat-y. So we built a Snapcash prototype and shared it with the team at Square. Luckily for us, they were just as excited as we were and wanted to build it together.

Users enter their debit card, and it’s stored by Square, who processes payments and sends cash directly to friends’ bank accounts. Users can swipe into chat, type the dollar sign and an amount, and hit the green button. That’s basically all there is to it.